April 23, 2009

Northern Illinois Stuck With $154,125 Bowl Bill

Northern Illinois not only lost to Louisiana Tech, 17-10, in the Independence Bowl, it took a financial bath in the process.

The school has reported a loss of $154,125 for its participation in the Dec. 28 game. This despite busing the band instead of flying it to Shreveport, La.

The Huskies also came under budget in lodging, entertainment, equipment truck expenses and some per diem expenses.

The Independence Bowl has a payout of $750,000 per team.

"We have some dollars there that we got from guarantees from other sources that can pay for that trip," athletic director Jeff Compher said. "We have to dip into the other accounts that we have. I think this was done with a lot of care."

Each of the teams participating in the Independence Bowl are required to purchase 12,000 tickets. Northern Illinois sold 2,000, netting only $38,880 of the $420,620 to purchase the allotment.

The Huskies also spent $37,562 on a team bowl package that included a warm-up suit, hooded sweatshirts and rings that Compher estimated cost around $130 each.

"They’re pretty nice actually," he said. "They're not 14-karat gold rings or anything, but it's got 'Independence Bowl' on it and then the year. It has their number. It's pretty nice. The team really wanted rings and we definitely wanted to do that and they weren’t very much."